Michael Flynn in 2014 , former national security adviser was warned by the Defense Intelligence Agency against accepting foreign payments as he entered retirement, according to new documents obtained by the House oversight committee.
According to an April 11 letter released by the oversight committee Thursday, the inspector general of the Department of Defense also opened an investigation of Flynn earlier this month.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, in a statement, “These documents raise grave questions about why General Flynn concealed the payments he received from foreign sources after he was warned explicitly by the Pentagon.” “Our next step is to get the documents we are seeking from the White House so we can complete our investigation. I thank the Department of Defense for providing us with unclassified versions of these documents.”
The news comes two days after Cummings and House oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz said Flynn may have broken the law by not disclosing payments he received from RT-TV, a station widely considered to be a propaganda arm of the Russian government. In a news conference following the documents’ release, Cummings again criticized the White House for not releasing documents related to Flynn.
“I honestly don’t understand why the White House is covering up for Michael Flynn,” Cummings said. “I don’t get it, after the President fired him for lying, they should be bending over backwards to help us. It does not make any sense and it makes the American people think they have something to hide. There is a paper trail that the White House does not want our committee to follow it.”
Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, had previously said that Flynn briefed the DIA on his speech to RT and the payments, but Cummings said Thursday that another document that was declassified this week shows no evidence to support that statement.
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